The present invention relates to facsimile apparatus with electronic mail (xe2x80x9ce-mailxe2x80x9d) send/receive functionalities and also to e-mail servers operatively associated therewith.
In recent years, e-mail functions have become an inevitable part of usual business life and thus are becoming important more and more in advanced office-use telecommunications systems. Implementation of such e-mail functions may typically require use of personal computers (PCs). Currently available PCs are designed to offer an ability to simultaneously transmit over communication links both message text data and graphics image data or else as supplementary files attached thereto. Unfortunately, to take full advantages of e-mail services, ordinary business users are required to have special knowledge as to initial system configuration setup procedures including, but not limited to, provider settings, domain name system (DNS) setup, and Internet protocol (IP) address setup. Setting up a system""s e-mail configuration is one of the most daunting tasks, which in turn makes it very difficult for untrained PC users to successfully utilize online e-mail services.
To transmit graphics image data by use of e-mail services, users are required to perform troublesome and time-consuming tasks, including data entry through PC keyboards, such as inputting of an e-mail destination address of a receiving side or xe2x80x9ccalledxe2x80x9d party on the other end of the line, typing e-mail message text, and further preparing, prior to manual key/button operations, a graphics data file for transmission with its specific file name added thereto by means of key-input or menu-selection schemes. One prior known approach to breaking through such difficulties is to employ an Internet-based email/facsimile transmit/receive system, which is designed to achieve interconnection via public communication links to an e-mail server coupled to a wide-area network or internetwork, called xe2x80x9cInternet,xe2x80x9d and then request the e-mail server to send forth the graphics image data from facsimile apparatus by way of the Internet links.
Regrettably, prior art Internet facsimile systems are arranged to handle facsimile data alone and thus are incapable of transmitting text data of messages or else along with facsimile data simultaneously.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved facsimile apparatus and electronic mail server capable of avoiding the problems faced with the prior art.
It is another object of this invention to provide a facsimile apparatus and e-mail server capable of sending e-mails each containing fax image data while reducing complexities.
To attain the foregoing objects, according to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a specific facsimile apparatus as operatively connected via public communications links to an electronic mail or xe2x80x9ce-mailxe2x80x9d server that in turn is coupled to the currently available wide-area internetwork, typically known as xe2x80x9cInternet.xe2x80x9d The facsimile equipment is arranged to include a data entry device for use in inputting information and in performing a variety of kinds of operations. The facsimile machine also includes a controller unit operable to request an operator or user to input a transmission destination address along with text of a mail message and then transmit toward the e-mail server both the text data as input through the data entry device and facsimile data such as scanned document image data at a time. With such an arrangement, it becomes possible to easily send text data and fax image data via e-mail transmission services by using the Internet and/or local area network (LAN).
In accordance with another aspect of the invention as disclosed herein, an e-mail server that is linked to the Internet network and also to public communication network is provided. The e-mail server is arranged to have the functions of: returning a response upon receipt of access from the public network; performing, upon receiving of user information including password from a transmitter side terminal, identification of a user based on the user information; requesting an address of a target party for transmission of a mail thereto when the user identification has been done successfully; in responding to transmission of the target party""s address from the transmitter terminal, to which address the mail is to be routed, requesting a receiver side terminal to provide the content of a message under transmission; upon transmission of message text data from the receiver terminal, requesting the receiver terminal to send fax data under transmission; and receiving fax image data as sent from the transmitter terminal to send it as a mail toward the Internet network with the received text data as a mail text and with a fax document as a supplementary or xe2x80x9cappendixxe2x80x9d file attached thereto. With such an arrangement, it is possible for the e-mail server to transmit via the Internet the text data along with the fax image data as requested from facsimile equipment to be delivered.
In accordance with still another aspect of the invention, a method of performing online contract between a facsimile machine and an e-mail server is provided. The facsimile machine is operable to upload its own telephone number toward an e-mail server system. The e-mail server system downloads a security identification (ID) with respect to the facsimile machine. Upon receipt of the security ID, the facsimile machine returns its reply to the e-mail server system and also terminates communications. Thereafter, the e-mail server system dials up at said telephone number thus uploaded. If a communication link is made between the e-mail server system and the facsimile machine then transmit to the facsimile a startup code indicating a server callup. The facsimile machine identifies the startup code to send the telephone number and the security ID to the e-mail server system. If these information items are free from errors then the e-mail server system sends to the facsimile machine certain data indicative of e-mail service allowability. The facsimile machine turns on a flag of such e-mail allowance in accordance with the data. Use of this methodology makes it possible to automate execution of contracts as to e-mail service utilization via online communications between facsimile machine and the e-mail server operatively associated therewith.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, a facsimile apparatus is provided which is connected via a public network to an e-mail server system as linked to an Internet network. The apparatus is configured including a storage unit for storing therein data or else, an e-mail button for instruction of e-mail communication, a domain name button for instruction of call-up of a domain name, a line controller unit for connection to a telephone network, a display device, and a system controller unit. This system controller is operable to: allow, when a user operates the e-mail button, the display device to display an indication requesting the user to input a telephone number; and control, when the user operates said domain name button after completion of entry of a destination address, read out for visual indication of information as to a domain name as stored in the storage unit. With such an arrangement, pre-registration of more than one specific domain of the target xe2x80x9ccustomerxe2x80x9d party to which transmission is made frequently may facilitate call-up of such a domain at any time when the need arises, which may in turn reduce human task complexities as to manual operations for domain data entry.